IN PICS: Russian Psychiatric Hospital Fire

A view shows the debris of a psychiatric hospital destroyed by fire in the Novgorod region town of Luka September 13, 2013.

Firefighters work amidst the debris of a psychiatric hospital destroyed by fire in the Novgorod region town of Luka September 13, 2013.

The fire was apparently started by a patient who was either smoking or deliberately set fire to his bed at the hospital in the village of Luka, 220 kilometres (137 miles) southeast of Saint Petersburg, officials said.

The fire in Luka, which broke out in the middle of the night, reduced the decrepit wooden building on the outskirts of a village beside a forest to smouldering wreckage.

Rescue teams were combing through the debris and taking away bodies in black plastic bags from the scene.